Wednesday Question: Spookiest Song Stories?

Every song tells a story. Usually they'll be tales of love, triumph or determination - but sometimes they're a little more sinister.
To celebrate Halloween, we're looking for songs with a spooky backstory. This week's Wednesday question is:

What song has the scariest back story?

Whether it was written in a creepy haunted house as the Red Hot Chili Peppers did with Rick Rubin, or a song written in mourning about a murdered love one, post your song nominations and stories below.
Upvote the stories that you agree are suitably creepy for Halloween, and we'll research the back stories for a spine-chilling top 10 playlist tomorrow. Good luck!

how the hell is Gloomy Sunday getting down voted? It should win. I haven't look down, but I'm guessing somebody thought of Mien Tiel (or however you spell it)? The Billie Holiday version puts chills down my spine

When I first saw the music video for Stan, it messed me up, but In Germany before the War is a song by Randy Newman about a German serial killer who raped and murdered little children, and the worst part, it's partially sung from his perspective. Seriously, check it out:

"The Vampyre of Time and Memory" by Queens of the Stone Age.
It's written a lot about how Josh Homme died on the hospital bed back in 2011, and then was revived. He was so shaken that he stopped writing music, until finally he was convinced to write something, and this was the first song he came up with.

My vote goes to Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath. Legend has it that the first time they played it live, people were leaving the venue in sheer fear of what they just heard. I get chills every time I listen to the song.

Whats the story behind N.I.B.?
I know theres the creepy story behind Black Sabbath with Ozzy getting Geezer a book about witchcraft because he was into that stuff even when the band was still called Earth. After reading it he fell asleep and woke up to see a tall dark figure towering over his bed with piercing eyes staring at him and then the figure disappeared and book was gone too.

Damn, you beat me to it! I'm surprised that you got as many up votes as you did considering it's hardcore underground hip hop but I'm gathering everyone can see and admire the true lyrical genius that is Immortal Technique.. and this is coming from a metalhead!

Wow, thats actually a pretty... well i dont have the words to explain it. Thats some lyrics, guess it hits harder than expected cuz a guy i used to be great friends with has gone through the same kinda thing, dont know if they've raped or murdered but time will tell sadly. Got my upvote

I think I'll have my vote go to Dead Skin Mask. It's one of the most well known songs about a serial killer and the whole song has a creepy vibe to it. The part with the little kid talking really helps show just how messed up Edward Gein was.

and of all the songs I'd say hurt would be perfect. the fact it was written there. out of all the darkness, evil and violence that the house experienced, a masterpiece of an album came when it all had ended right before the house was finally demolished. a work of art was the last thing that happened in the house. just like in the darkness, the anger, hate, violence and loud noise through the album we are left with one of the most beautiful songs ever written at the end of it all.
Also, the word Pig was written on the front door, it was very faded and painted over, Reznor reportedly claims never to have seen it yet wrote the songs "march of the pigs" and "piggy" where he continues to call the second person subject a pig over and over.

"La Mer" from The Fragile also had an incredibly dark story considering the surrounding state Reznor was in. Strange cause the song isn't very angry like Somewhat Damaged or depressing like A Warm Place, but yet hearing the little groove is just so haunting and chilling.

Ohio Players - Rollercoaster Of Love
Story goes that one of the vocal howls in the song are in fact the screams of a woman who'd broken into the studio and was then stabbed to death by the band's manager while the song was being recorded.
Utter bollocks of course, but still a cool story.

Really? i heard it was a model, who was kneeling whilst dripping honey on her self. The honey glued her skin to the plexiglass beneath her, and when she got, she tore the skin off of her legs and screamed in pain. That's just the story i heard.

There are a few variations. The model bit is meant to be true, but happened before, while they were doing the artwork for the album cover. She was angry at having being hurt so went looking for the manager, who then killed her in the studio.

Came here solely to post this. Friggen crazy story. I read news articles about the crash after hearing what the song was about to see if it was actually true and some of the articles are more heart wrenching than the song.

Springsteen based State Trooper on Frankie Teardrop, and those howls toward the end of the song have always given me the chills especially when driving down the interstate at 1am. (The whole album has quite a few eerie songs, the title track and Johnny 99 being about murderers, and the title track being based on Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend's killing spree in the 50's).

The kid talking at the end freaked me out the first time I heard that song. I was just a kid myself and must have had the volume on the stereo just perfect that it didn't sound like it was coming from the song.

What's the Joy Division song that's linked to the singer's death? Atmosphere I think? He was worried his wife was going to leave him because of his music career and a possible affair, so he wrote and recorded it, and he hung himself in his kitchen before it could ever be released. The song didn't directly have much to do with it, but it's about all of the things that made him want to end, and he saw to it that that happened. Spooky.

The band Cults are a little hipster and poppy for UG, but they supposedly sample from either Jim Jones or Charles Manson. The Brian Jonestown Massacre have a song called the Ballad of Jim Jones.
Then there's that metal band from Scandinavia where the singer blew himself away, then the guitarist took pictures of it for their album cover; supposedly made soup out of some of the pieces...any song by them.

Varg isn't creepy. "Dead" the singer was creepy as hell. From what i've heard, he found a dead crow, put it in a bag for 3 weeks and took a nice big whiff before performing live. He was obsessed with death. His suicide note went something like this: "Hi guys. slitting my wrists with the kitchen knife was too boring, so i used the shotgun. Sorry about the mess."
That's creepy. If you look at the picture (google "dawn of the blackhearts") you can see his slit wrists and the brainsplatter.

So tell everybody/The ones who walk beside me, yeah/I know you'll find your own way/When I'm not with you tonight - That last line always sent chills down my spine. A creepy and beautiful song. A Little Piece Of Heaven was a good thought at first but it's more a demented love story than "creepy".

A guy who challenges the devil to a drinking competition, loses and gets dragged to hell. A husband who kills his wife of 50 years, conceals her corpse under his floorboards and she comes back to haunt him.
That is the definition of a spooky story.

There's the story of an Ouija board causing all kinds of trouble for The Mars Volta while recording Bedlam in Goliath. I'd say that works as a ghastly back story. They actually broke the thing and buried it to get rid of it's 'curse'.

I was gonna post the same thing, but you beat me to it. The spookiness surrounding that album was crazy and a lot of coincidence. Blake Fleming quitting, Cedric needing surgery, Omar's studio fire, and the album's engineer losing his shit and quitting saying that they were trying to make him and others crazy and that they were doing something bad with the album. Pretty spooky.

A lot of Slipknot songs; The Virus of Life, (515 despite being an intro rather than a song), Iowa, Scissors, Prosthetics, Purity, the list goes on. As far as stories go, the whole Vol. 3 album was recorded in the Houdini Mansion in LA which is a paranormal hotspot. 3spooky5me

I strongly urge anyone who has never listened to this to grab the lyrics and sit down for a while and let this work it's magic. The story alone gives me the heebee jeebies everytime, but the whole atmosphere the song creates just multiplies that effect by 10.

Avenged Sevenfold "A Little Piece of Heaven". .the song's about a man murdering his girlfriend so she can't ever leave him and doing unspeakable things to her body. .until she comes back from the dead and kills him, followed by the two of them getting married in the afterlife and going around terrorizing everyone

Cellar door or my apocalypse by escape the fate have pretty creepy lyrics. it was said above, but a little piece of heaven by Avenged sevenfold should be up there. and i would also add Dancing Dead by Avenged sevenfold too

"polly" by nirvana. Cobain read "a newspaper article about the abduction, torture and rape in June 1987 of a 14-year-old girl by Gerald Arthur Friend; Friend had picked her up near the Tacoma Dome in his car after she had attended a rock concert. She was able to earn his trust and sympathy by convincing him she enjoyed it. She managed to escape when he stopped for gas. She got out of the vehicle and made a scene attracting attention from surrounding people." According to Krist.

A story behind Mastodon's Crack the Skye album. Brann Dailor, the band's drummer, his mother was a drug addict and his father as an abusive alcoholic. Brann's younger sister, Skye, committed suicide when they were teenagers, and a few weeks later, while tripping on acid, he went to her grave and began to dig it up- no tools, just his hands. Thankfully, he gave up halfway through, and looked up at the sky, and believes he saw Skye's face in the stars. He then returned home, where he discovered his father had beaten his mother and then left the family. Him and his mother became heavy drug addicts together, and were later admitted to a mental institution. After his release, he met his future wife, got clean, and soon after Mastodon was formed.

Purity by Slipknot. "This is based on a true story about a woman who was abducted by a man and his wife. She was tortured, degraded, and confined during the day in a small box no bigger than a coffin for 6 years. The woman became conditioned with "Stockholm Syndrome." This condition sometimes occurs when a person finally gives themselves willing to their captor and believes they are in love with them, or at least understands and accepts their captivity without resistance. "
Corey's comments on the lyrics and the story that influenced them:
""Can you imagine a girl being buried in a box and having all this lecherous bulls--t drip down on her from this guy? And thinking that there is hope, because this kid is taking some bizarre note to this guy he doesn't even know - thinking that you are holding on to the shirt of hope - and you wake up and you're dead, you're buried in mud - they find the note about a week later shoved in a library book. It just hurts your head, it's a case of what is good and bad in people. The box alone is reason enough to be like, 'I cant stand to be f--king human.' What is inside of us that is so f--king wrong? He had written quotes from Edgar Allen Poe and lots of f--ked up things on the box.""

It actually wasn't a true story Corey read it on a fictional crime book or website thinking it was true and when the author found out about the song he he tried taking them to court or something and that's why the song wasn't on the self titled album. they eventually were granted to keep the rights for the song and that's why they could still play it live and put it out on the live album

"Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath - The song lyrics are based on a dark demonic figure Geezer Butler saw after reading an old occult text.
"You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC - Brian Johnson wrote all the lyrics in a short sitting without even having to stop and think about any of them. He stated he didn't believe in ghost type stuff, but it was something supernatural that gave him all the words to write.
Any song from Led Zeppelin IV - The songs were recorded at Headley Grange, a home owned by occultist Aleister Crowley.

Stairway to Heaven , forward or backward, hands down. A friend and I listened to it backward on an old cassette player. We clearly heard, "My sweet Satan, make a path for the glory of Satan." Weeks later I was listening to the same cassette alone in my bedroom. the most wicked laugh I've ever heard came out of the speakers while the intro was playing. Scared the crap out of me.

stairway to heaven. Led Zeppelin 4 altogether. if you look into how Page bought Aleister Crowley's house where he performed his rituals. it was also built where a church had burned down. He wrote stairway to heaven there and Robert Plant suddenly just wrote lyrics that started coming to him. Not to mention all the theories of it having satanic subliminal messages played backwards. It's such an eerie song, and the whole time period in Page's life was so dark that it deserves mention.

Rammstein - Mein Teil
The song is ispired by the case of Armin Meiwes and Bernd Jürgen. A man who willingly agreed to be mutilated, tortured, cooked and eaten.
The song by itself is slightly disturbing and the video is also kind of graphic.

RIDER ON THE STORM by The Doors. After all, it IS about a serial killer! I'd also have to go with HELTER SKELTER. The organ solo in Emerson, Lake and Palmer's IN THE BEGINNING is very eerie. The song itself is not so spooky, but that solo always evokes, in me anyway, images of the Manson family skulking the Hollywood Hills looking for victims.

Piggy by Nine Inch Nails. Reznor bought the house where the Manson murders were comitted. On the front door was once written the word "Pig". It was painted over. Reznor wrote two songs on the Downward Spiral (which was recorded at the house) called "Piggy" and "March of the pigs" and he has said he had no knowledge the word pig had ever been written on the front door. I think piggy is scarier just by the fact he keeps repeating pig and piggy over and over.

London Bridge Is Falling Down
It may be a nursery rhyme but back in the day this song was about entombing children within the structure of said bridge. Actually there are plenty of nursery rhymes with creepy background stories.
Also ... I've noticed people just list songs they find "spooky", I thought the topic was about the stories behind the songs, not the songs themselves.

A Night with the Jersy Devil - Bruce Springsteen
The 13th child born into a family turns into a winged horse headed creature. Thrown in the river to drown by the dad, the child comes back to kill the family and haunt New Jersey. The dirty backwoods blues music helps a lot

Megadeth - Good Mourning/Black Friday
nothing like a Serial Killer "hacking his victims into pieces of meat" I mean it's got born again Christian Mustaine too frightened to play it (along with The Conjuring and Bad Omen from Peace Sells)

Trivium anyone?
Like Unrepentant
about a man named Nazir Ahmad from Pakistan who thought his eldest daughter was aldulturous so he slit her throat, then he killed his other 2 daughters and his step daughter to prevent them from becoming unfaithful as well, many songs on The Crusade were about controversial murders like Ahmad, Andrea Yates, Jason Shepard, and the guy from Philadelphia in Contemption Breeds Contamination.

Aerosmith - Janie's Got A Gun.
Wiki - "The song's somewhat upbeat, lighthearted tone is heavily contrary to the dark content of the lyrics, which are about a girl named Janie who takes revenge on her father after being sexually abused by him; it is one of the few Aerosmith songs to deal with a heavy social issue."

This will probably be downvoted but Fiction by Avenged Sevenfold has a very haunting background and vibe. Not scary, but haunting. It was written 3 days before The Rev died and the lyrics and sound are awfully fitting.

Entrails ripped from a virgin's C*** by Cannibal Corpse. The song tells a story Chris Barnes heard about a man and a mentally challenged man whom he convinced to take a coathanger and... well, read the song title and the lyrics. Abhorrent actions made for an even scarier tale.

This might be the only instrumental song to get nominated. I really hope someone get's the reference, it's the Pokemon theme music that plays in the town Lavender Town in the original Red and Green Japanese versions that contain a high frequency not found in the US releases.
Supposedly it made quite a few Japanese children get sick and commit suicide according to legend (probably not true and it was only children because there are certain pitches that adults can't hear that are extremely high in the song), it features a pretty sinister use of the tritone and the song is downright disturbing, especially those high parts in the middle.
The creepiest part is I was showing a friend this one time and while he was listening to it with headphones he had a nosebleed, and he doesn't get nosebleeds often.

Dunno about creepy (given that it's just a story) but Devil in Jersey City by Coheed and Cambria, given that the song is about Josephine (Coheed and Cambria's daughter) being raped, yeah tbh most of the back stories with their songs can be a little messed up, although it usually is open for interpretation

I'm going to offer a few County suggestions:
David Allan Coe--The Ride
-It's just a creepy set of lyrics.
Alan Jackson--Midnight in Montgomery
-The arrangement to this song, particularly the intro, are just incredibly haunting. If I heard the intro to this song while walking in a dark place, I'd probably be freaked out. It's funny how many emotions a steel guitar can create.

Afterlife, by Avenged Sevenfold.
Not really for the music, but for the Rev's vocals starting at 3:40 to the start of the solo at 4-minutes.
It's really the line "I need another chance to live!" that makes the song creepy for me.The entire song seems like a premonition to the Rev's death, actually.

"Carry On" by Jim Strange & The Proud & The Damned. Great local band in my area, I know they probably won't make the list, but everything about the song, execution, the music, the lyrics are just bone chilling. Sorry, they used to have the track singled. It starts at the 25:20 mark.

"Carry On" by Jim Strange & The Proud & The Damned. Great local band in my area, I know they probably won't make the list, but everything about the song, execution, the music, the lyrics are just bone chilling. Sorry, they used to have the song singled. It starts at the 25:20 mark in the link.

It's a rap song and not spooky as it is horrifying at the end. If you don't want to listen, basically this kid grows up to be a thug, he's getting wasted with his boys when they see a woman walking on the street. Before they can see who she actually is they put her shirt over her head, pin her down and gang rape her. He's about to kill her when he pulls the shirt off her head and realizes it's his own mother. He jumps off a building and kills himself because he feels so guilty and the rest of his gang kills her.

There isnt anything that currently comes to mind for me, and this one here is a bit of a shot in the dark but ill chuck it in. I dont know if this is based off real events or to even really class it as a song, but it gives me chills if i hear it, to me the dialogue is pretty disturbing

I'd have to say Pumpkinhead by the Misfits. Basically the song retells the story of the movie with the same name (starring Lance henriksen). It's about a man who conjures up a gigantic vengeance demon called Pumpkinhead to destroy the teenagers who accidentally killed his son.
The spooky part of it all is the poem that the movie (and the song) is based on. (the song ends with the first four lines of the poem)
The Original Poem:
Keep away from Pumpkinhead,
Unless you're tired of living,
His enemies are mostly dead,
He's mean and unforgiving,
Laugh at him and you're undone,
But in some dreadful fashion,
Vengeance, he considers fun,
And plans it with a passion,
Time will not erase or blot,
A plot that he has brewing,
It's when you think that he's forgot,
He'll conjure your undoing,
Bolted doors and windows barred,
Guard dogs prowling in the yard,
Won't protect you in your bed,
Nothing will, from Pumpkinhead.
The poem was made by a guy named Ed Justin. But from what i've read nobody have been able to clarify the poems origins or who Ed justin is. Which I feel is quite mysterious and spooky.

Metallica "One" - according to Wikipedia, the song tells "the tale of a soldier who is hit by an artillery shell and loses his limbs, eyes, ears and mouth. His mind functions perfectly, however, leaving him trapped inside his own body"

Cat Power, "Moon Pix" album - According to the artist, Chan Marshall: "I got woken up by someone in the field behind my house in South Carolina," she explained, "The earth started shaking, and dark spirits were smashing up against every window of my house. I woke up and I had my kitten next to me...and I started praying to God to help me...So I just ran and got my guitar because I was trying to distract myself. I had to turn on the lights and sing to God. I got a tape recorder and recorded the next sixty minutes. And I played these long changes, into six different songs. That's where I got the record." (It's a spooky record)

The recording sessions were infamously chaotic, and involved the studio owner reportedly calling Century to ask if the band were insane, and threatening to kick them out. This particular incident occurred after Mike Williams had attempted to record the sound of smashing glass for the introduction to the album, by smashing a bottle on the floor of the studio. In the process he slashed his hand open badly and bled all over the studio floor (this recording did make it to the record as the introduction to the first track, "My Name is God (I Hate You)"). One of the band members then apparently smeared the words "Hell" and "Death to Pigs" in Mike's blood.

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young "Ohio" - Four students at Kent State were gunned down by the US Military during a protest. "The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis."

Funkadelic "Maggot Brain" - According to legend, George Clinton, under the influence of LSD, told Eddie Hazel during the recording session to imagine he had been told his mother was dead, but then learned that it was not true. Other sources say the title is a reference to band leader George Clinton finding his brother's "decomposed dead body, skull cracked, in a Chicago apartment."

Black Dahlia Murder - Deathmask Divine?
It's based on a true story about a German scientist called Carl Tanzler. He became obsessed with a patient of his, so much so that even after she had died of tuberculosis, he stole the body and preserved it, sitting it at the table while he ate, sleeping with it, etc